PIGEON FLYING.

Otago Witness, Issue 1241, 11 September 1875, Page 17

PIGEON FLYING.

An " Old Sport" write? to the Lyttelton Times about the recpnt pigeon-flying match, and says : — "Surely there must be something very wrong in the word of time taken in the recent pigeon flying match. I learn from Sydney that a match in connection with the Calumbarian Club came off lately in that Colony. The match was from Goulbourn to Sydney, a distance of 134 miles ; and as the oldest bird which took part in the match was not quite nine months old, it was thought by some that the task would prove too .severe, but such was not the case. The first ;bird was tossed in Goulbourn at 10 a.m., the second at 10.30, and so on at half -hour intervals. The morning was cold and frosty, ,and the atmosphere clear, very favourable .weather for the birds. The one which was I tossed third, at 11.30, a fine meally-coloured jpigeon, proved the winner, reaching Sydney at 1.43, thereby doing the distance in two hours and twelve minutes, flying the measured mile at the rate of a shade less than a mile a minute." We are also inclined to agree with "Old Sport," for the .'time as recorded appeared to us to be unusually long. According to the local papers, it took the winner, an Antwerp cock, 30 minutes to fly from Rfllleeton to Christohurch, which is only a, distance of 17 mile:?.